Rotary tools for surface treatment have in the past comprised an annular disk of an elastic material, frequently referred to as a wheel, for the removal of adhesive residues and adhering plastic foils from metal surfaces. The wheel or disk mounted in a hand-held apparatus including a pneumatic or electric motor, was pressed against the article whose surface was to be treated so that the adhesive residue and foil, for example decorative strips adhesively bonded to the metal surface, advertising material or labels of synthetic resin foils, could be abraded away.
Frequently it is important that such substances and materials be removed without detriment to the surface finish of the metal body and especially to a lacquer coating which may be applied thereto. That is the case, for instance, for the removal of such residues and materials from automobile bodies.
Other rotary tools have been used for a variety of surface treatments and include annular disks of cylindrical, conical or other round shapes and have also been composed at least in part of a yieldable material such as rubber or a rubber-like synthetic resin.
A common problem with the known rotary tools is that they can be operated only at relatively slow speeds, for example 1500 RPM. Such speeds are unsatisfactory since they make the use of the tool time-consuming and, consequently, expensive. The prior art rotary tools utilized for the purposes described tend to become unround readily and, because they are relatively massive bodies, cannot resume their original configurations after deformations and tend often to be residually deformed.
Another problem arising with such prior art tools is the high heat development in use. The working surface may be subjected to excessively high temperatures and can be damaged. Furthermore, the surfaces tend to pick up flakes of lacquer, adhesive residues and the like when the tool is used to remove such residues from lacquered surfaces and these must be removed if continued use of the tools is desirable.